The past few years have seen asset managers respond to uncertain markets, shifting demographics and regulatory change with a raft of more outcome-focused, multi-asset investment options. Is the sun setting on the traditional, mixed asset approach?

As a growing organisation NEST are constantly evolving their approach and look to understand how best to service their members. This report details a variety of case studies which demonstrate positive and responsible investments, with a look to future developments within the DC landscape.

Skandia axes Luckraft from UK Best Ideas

Skandia has removed George Luckraft from the manager line-up on its £142m UK Best Ideas fund.

The Axa Framlington manager is the latest name to be dropped since Skandia overhauled the fund in February and there are no plans to replace him.

His removal comes after a tough few years for Luckraft on the Axa Framlington Equity Income and Monthly Income funds. Equity Income fell 38.2% over three years to 28 June against a peer group average fall of 18.8%, according to Financial Express.

Monthly Income fell 39.6% over the same period, although both funds have beaten the sector average by a small margin over one year.

The manager has previously blamed his exposure to small caps and mis-timing of the rally in mining stocks for the funds' underperformance.

Commenting on the change, Skandia portfolio manager Francois Zagame says: "We decided to focus solely on managers who had displayed evidence of sustainable focused alpha by consistently outperforming their diversified funds with their best ideas portfolios during the very testing market conditions of 2008 and 2009.

"One of the key characteristics displayed by most remaining managers is an ability to adapt very quickly to changing market conditions, which has been clearly demonstrated in the recent market turmoil.

"This pragmatism is something we view as important given the volatile nature of stock markets."

The portfolio now has exposure to the following managers: Audrey Ryan at Aegon; Jacob de Tusch-Lec at Artemis; Richard Plackett at BlackRock; Luke Kerr at Old Mutual; Richard Buxton at Schroders and Hector Kilpatrick at SVM.

Zagame says since UK Best Ideas was refocused it has recorded very strong relative performance against both the FTSE All Share Index and the IMA UK All Companies sector